Mortal Kombat X
Summary Mortal Kombat X is a continuation of the popular and overly violent Arcade game of the 1990's. Story Raiden has defeated Shao Kahn and saved Earthrealm from his evil, and thus changed the flow of time where the events of Mortal Kombat Armageddon will never come to pass. Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade are the only known survivors and are now a part of the special forces branch called the "Outerworld Investigation Agency" and together they defeated Quan Chi and the fallen Elder God: Shinnok. Around 20 years later, Cage is now a leader of his own OIA team consisting of 2 young female Special Forces recruits (one of them being his own daughter: Cassie Cage) A Shirai-Ryu clan member named Takeda, and a descendant of the Shaolin Monks named Kung Jin. Meanwhile, Outworld is in a state of civil war between Mileena (a Tarkatan clone of Kitana created by Shang Tsung) and Kotal Kahn: an Osh-Tekk who is seeking to usurp the throne of Outworld. Johnny Cage is ordered by his superior (and ex-wife) Sonya to send his team to Outworld to end the Outworld civil war. But what Cassie and her team will soon realize that they'll also get involved in trying to stop the resurrection of Shinnok. Game Modes Story Mode Play the 12 chapters of the game's story mode. Towers Play the klassical Arcade style towers or some of the others such as the "Test Your Luck", "Test Your Might", "Endless" or "Survival". You can also play any of the living towers online. Single Fight Have a one match fight in this mode. Practice Test Your Skills to learn the basics of the game, you can even learn to do Fatalities. Krypt By collecting and using Koins, you can unlock certain features in the game such as alternate costumes, concept artwork and even Brutalities. Option Mode Change some aspects of the game such as the audio, video or even the game's gameplay in this mode. Johnny's Reviews General Thoughts Now, I admit that I'm not really interested in actually having this game. But not wanting to set myself to hate this game automatically (as they killed off Liu Kang and made him a villain) I decided to finally rent it.Want to know what I think of it, well, check out my reviews. Graphics The graphics in this game are a good mix of real and animated. Though the graphics do look somewhat life-like, but in a good way it's also got a bit of an animated look to it unlike in Batman: Arkham Knight where the character models look too life-like. So, the graphics in this game has a little bit of everything. Grade: '''A+ Music The soundtrack in the game, though good and does *somewhat* do the original games some justice. But it also sounds like in a movie. It has a classical western symphonic tune rather than anything Asian (as Mortal Kombat's environment is supposed to be Asian). I do understand that Mortal Kombat's atmosphere is much more darker than....say Street Fighter's, so I can't expect an upbeat techno soundtrack which is synonymous to Street Fighter, but still I would've liked a more of an upbeat soundtrack to go with the fights in the game. '''Grade: B- Sounds/Voice The sounds of the game are top notch. The sounds of the punches, kicks hitting human flesh or Zatteran scales are something that is quite realistic as well as some of the blood sounds when a Fatality is being performed and the bones crunching when you perform a X-Ray move. All sound crisp and realisitc. The voices on the other hand take a much harder hit (probably from Goro's punch move) as most of the cast from Mortal Kombat R didn't return for this game. Some characters (like Sub-Zero) suffer the misfortune of being voiced by the awful Steve Blum (who does voices for various video game the TV show characters), he has tried to mimic Cal Dodd's Wolverine voice (as he has done the Canadian X-Man in numerous shows and movies). Plus, other characters like Li-Mei are voiced by western VA's who do a stereotypical Asian accent. So, this category is almost half-n-half. '''Grade: '''C Gameplay/Controls The gameplay is about the same as it was in MKR, but it's much faster, making it a bit more of a better experience. Unlike Street Fighter where it focuses on the strength of one's punches, kicks and special moves, Mortal Kombat focuses on timing of moves and the amount of hits one fighter can make. Making blocking in this game more of a challenge. The X-ray moves as well as the iconic Fatalities make a return for this game, the game also sees a return of Brutalities which made their debut in the Super NES version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Unlike in UMK3 however, it involves performing a certain special move or kombo during a fight in order to perform. Like in Injustice: Gods Among Us, the fighters can also use interactions in Kombat Zones to hit and damage their opponent. But perhaps the most distinctive gameplay feature in this game is the ability to choose a variation of your chosen character. These variations not only give your chosen character a different look but also specific kombos and special moves as well as certain Brutalities that can be only performed depending on the variation chosen. The controls in the game are also the same as in MKR, each of the attack buttons control certain punches and kicks with a MK twist to it, so making it a bit easier to learn and understand than.....say, Tekken for instance. So, the gameplay is easy but yet a bit of a challenge for some. '''Grade: '''A- Replay Value There are a lot of extra features in this game. As with MKR, there is the Krypt where you can spend Koins you collect by playing the game and unlock some really nifty stuff such as concept artwork, alternate costumes for characters and even Brutalities and fatalities. Of course, there is the old fashioned way to unlock stuff as well, like meeting a certain criteria in the game. If you're a nut for online play, there are also online towers (called living towers) where you can play with other online players. '''Grade: '''B+ Final Thoughts Yes, I really didn't like how the game's initial story handled the characters, not just Liu Kang, but the entire classical cast is basically reduced to supporting roles for the new characters, so if story was a major category, I would've given it an "F" just for that as well as numerous contradictions to the MKR story. But at least this game is the legitimate TGF at the moment, especially with Street Fighter 5's lack of an Arcade Mode, hopefully that game's story mode is worth the wait, which will be for 4 months. '''Overall Grade: '''B